LOS ANGELES — The “Kevin Costner solution” to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might actually work.
Costner has invested about $24 million in a novel way of sifting oil spills that he began working on while making “Waterworld,” released in 1995.
BP and the U.S. Coast Guard plan to test six of his massive, stainless steel centrifugal oil separators next week.
Costner’s business partner, John Houghtaling, said Costner bought the technology, which was developed with help from the Department of Energy after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, and turned it over to experts for fine-tuning.
“The machines . . . suck up oily water and spin it around at high speed,” Houghtaling said. “On one side, it spits out pure oil, which can be recovered. The other side spits out 99 percent pure water.”
He said 10 large machines could potentially clean 2 million gallons of oil water a day.Los Angeles Times
